<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Trust by otomekaidii</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27465556">Trust</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/otomekaidii/pseuds/otomekaidii'>otomekaidii</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Love for Levi [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shall We Date?: Obey Me!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-neutral Reader, Levi comforts you after a terrible week, Levi is the best friend you could ask for, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Possible Spoilers, Reader-Insert, i just wanted to sleep in his tub, mc needs some support too, relationships are open to interpretation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 18:15:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,885</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27465556</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/otomekaidii/pseuds/otomekaidii</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Retelling of the events near the end of Lesson 26, after The Incident™️ at the carnival. Not canon compliant.</p><p>Levi is busy working on the costumes when you come over to spend some time with him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Leviathan (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!) &amp; Reader, Leviathan (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Love for Levi [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020585</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>150</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Trust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Levi was sulking. </p><p>Not only had everyone gone out to the carnival together, without even inviting him, while he slaved tirelessly over the costumes, they were now ignoring him and snapping at him every time he tried to update them on his progress. </p><p>Sitting in his room, he continued sewing the piece he was working on, mumbling curses under his breath all the while. </p><p><em>Stupid normies. Who needs them? </em>Not like they would be able to fully appreciate all the hard work he had put into things anyways. At least Christopher Peugeot needed him. That was all that mattered right now. He’d do this play justice if it was the last thing he did. His useless, ungrateful brothers be damned. Or would it be “blessed” in this case? Whatever. It didn’t matter. He was not going to let them get to him. </p><p>A knock at his door interrupted his thoughts.</p><p><em>Who could that be? </em>He never liked visitors and he was certainly not in the mood for any today.</p><p> </p><p>“Levi? Can we talk?” </p><p> </p><p>Oh. It was you. While he was furious with his brothers, your behavior probably hurt him the most. He had grown accustomed to your kindness and the attention you paid him, but you hadn’t stopped by his room in a couple days now. He was torn between turning you away out of spite and a strong desire to see you again, hopeful that you’d listen to him. </p><p>“Sure. Whatever,” he replied. He didn’t want to sound too excited to see you, he was still upset after all. But he couldn’t stop the stupid grin from spreading across his face, so he made sure his back was to the door when you entered. </p><p>Without a word, you made your way over to the beanbag chair on the floor, and pulled your knees to your chest. You grabbed the Azuki-tan plush that was nearby and hugged it close, burying your face in it. You had been trying not to cry, but now that you were in the comfort of Levi’s room, listening to the gentle hum of his electronics and surrounded by his scent, it was almost impossible not to. </p><p>Unaware of your struggle to fight back your tears, Levi finally spoke to you. </p><p>“So, what do you want?”, His tone was perhaps a little sharper than it needed to be, and he began to worry he might have gone too far and you would only be annoyed with him and leave again. When you failed to respond, he chanced a look at you to see if he could figure out how you were feeling. </p><p>You were staring at him, sure, but tears were streaming down your face. In fact, he didn’t think he had ever seen someone cry so much. His heart shattered. He had done this to you. He had broken you. He hadn’t even been that mad - he just wanted some attention and for you to feel sorry for him. But now you were crying and showed no signs of stopping and it was all his fault. </p><p>“I’M SORRY!”, he yelled, tossing the items in his hands aside as he moved to crouch in front of you, “I...I...I… didn’t mean it! Really! I’m not even upset! Just please, please don't cry.” He was pleading with you now, absolutely desperate to undo the damage he had caused. His hands were hovering over your shoulders unsure if he should hug you or just let you be. He knew he liked it when you hugged him when he was upset, but he wasn’t sure how you’d feel about being hugged by the very person that had hurt you. </p><p>You started shaking your head, roughly rubbing at your eyes as you tried to halt the flow of tears. You couldn’t form a sentence right now, you could barely even breathe, but you needed to let your best friend know that he wasn’t to blame. Giving up on getting the tears to stop, you opted to instead just throw your arms around Levi’s neck and cling to him for dear life.</p><p>Levi was stunned at your sudden movement, but he soon recovered enough to return your hug, and he began to rub soothingly on your back as you cried your eyes out. He really wasn’t sure what else to do at this point besides sit there and hold you. You always seemed to know just what to say to him to calm him down, but he was at a complete loss as to how he should help you. </p><p>After awhile your tears had finally dried up, and your breathing had begun to even out once more. Your chest hurt, your throat burned, and your eyes ached. This wasn’t how you had meant for this to go. You had wanted to apologize to him, but here you were instead crying in his arms as he apologized to you when he hadn’t even done anything wrong. </p><p>Slowly you pulled back so you could look at him. You really had to talk to him now and say what you had come here to say. He deserved that much. You knew how hard he was working on the costumes, and how excited he had been about them. And you wanted him to know that too. He needed to know that. </p><p>“I’m sorry,” you whispered. Your throat was still dry and raw and you didn’t think you could speak any louder if you tried. You looked up at Levi, making eye contact with him for the first time, to see if he heard you. </p><p>He had heard you alright and he wasn’t sure how to respond. His hands were resting on your shoulders now and he just looked so confused. You couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him, giggling uncontrollably at his attempts to puzzle out what he was supposed to do now.</p><p>While you had been crying he had rehearsed several different scenarios in his head as to how this would play out, and he honestly hadn’t even considered you breaking down in a fit of giggles. </p><p>You showed him some mercy though, and wrapped your arms around his neck again, in a gentle hug this time. Smiling, you pressed a kiss to his cheek. </p><p>“Thank you Levi. Sorry about that. I guess I had just let everything build up too much and it finally came bursting out.” </p><p>You sat back on the bean bag, and offered him a sheepish grin. You took his hands in yours, resting them in your lap, as you rubbed the backs of them with your thumbs. You were rather embarrassed by your behavior, if you were being honest. It wasn’t that you had a problem crying in front of him or his brothers, but you had never broken down so completely before. </p><p>“Um yeah. It’s fine.” </p><p>“Guess I should tell you why I came here huh?” </p><p>He gave you a small nod, encouraging you to continue. </p><p>“I wanted to apologize to you. I should have made sure you had been invited to join us once everyone else had showed up. And I should have made more of an effort to talk to you afterwards. I promise you didn’t miss out on anything, and if I had my way, I would have been here with you instead of out there. So, I’m sorry, Levi,” you took a breath before continuing, “And I also wanted to make sure you knew how amazing I think it is that you’re designing and creating all these costumes yourself. That’s not something just anyone could do.”</p><p>You were looking down at his hands as you played with them, waiting for his response. You were the one that messed up, and you didn’t want to pressure him or make him uncomfortable by forcing eye contact on him. </p><p>“It’s ok. I mean, it’s just me anyways. Who can blame you for not noticing the absence of one otaku?” </p><p>Your head snapped up to look at him. But he wasn’t upset like you had imagined, instead he was smiling at you. He was trying to comfort you. You returned his grin with one of your own. </p><p>“Well, you are my favorite otaku after all, so of course I missed you.”</p><p>That response made him blush, and you laughed as he averted his gaze in embarrassment. No matter how many times you complimented him, he still wasn’t used to it when you were so direct. He wasn’t really going to complain though. He liked hearing those things, a fact he was determined to keep to himself under pain of death.</p><p>“So what did happen at the carnival? Everyone else seems to be in a pretty rotten mood too.”</p><p>Your smile fell, and the blood drained from your face. Why did he have to ask you that? That was half the reason you had taken refuge in his room anyways. The awkwardness with which everyone else had been treating you since then had left you feeling so lonely and isolated. To make matters worse, Mammon, who was usually constantly at your side, now seemed to be avoiding you. </p><p>“Uhh. Sorry. You don’t have to tell me. I get it if it’s something you don’t want me to know. I mean, it’s not like it’s any of my business…”</p><p>Levi had started to ramble. He knew he was rambling. He wanted to stop, but his mouth kept on going. Frankly he was afraid if he did stop talking you might start crying again, and he really wasn’t equipped to handle another breakdown. He’d probably start sobbing right along with you if you did. </p><p>Seeing how desperately Levi was trying to backtrack, you made the decision to just tell him the truth. There was no use hiding it. It was only a matter of time before one of his brothers explained the situation to him, or he overheard them talking. And you were sure they were talking. </p><p>“Well,” you started, giving Levi a moment to settle down, “you know how Beel gets when he’s really, really hungry?” Levi nodded. “He got like that at the restaurant we had met up at. And long story short, the situation quickly dissolved into chaos with food and plates flying everywhere as your brothers one by one also got pulled into the fight, and the ghost servers returned fire.”</p><p>Levi could certainly see what you meant when you said he hadn’t missed out on anything. That did not sound even remotely close to his idea of a good time. At least not in public anyways. He imagined chucking a pie at Mammon’s face in the dining room and the thought made him smile.</p><p>You sighed, and looked at your lap where Levi’s hands still rested in yours. Now you had to tell him the part you had been dreading the most. The part that had left you feeling scared, confused, and alone. Sensing your hesitation, Levi gave your hands a small squeeze to remind you he was there. </p><p>“I...I used my pacts to stop them.”</p><p>Levi started to nod in understanding, when he suddenly realized what you had said and the implications, “Wait what?! But I thought you couldn’t use magic? And you stopped them? ALL of them? At the same time? Even LUCIFER?!” </p><p>You flinched as Levi raised his voice in his excitement. You didn’t know it was excitement though. Tears started to gather in your eyes again as you were sure he was about to pull away. The only thing you could do was grip his hands tighter, hoping to keep him there with you just a little longer. </p><p>“That’s so awesome! I can’t believe it! You stopped Lucifer?? This is amazing. Do you know that that means? Your magic must be ridiculously strong. This is just like that one anime I told you about, you know? The heroine thought she was just a normal, boring high schooler. Then BAM! She discovered her magic through the power of love!”</p><p>Levi was in awe of you, and seeing and hearing his enthusiasm sent a wave of relief washing over you. You looked at him as he carried on, and couldn’t help but smile. That was your Levi. You should have known he would be supportive, and accepting. He knew what it was like to be excluded after all, and he also knew the pain of struggling to control his own powers. </p><p>“Wait. But why would that make you so upset? That’s a good thing isn’t it? It means you’re getting stronger and will be safer here, doesn’t it?” </p><p>Ah. There it is. The other question you had been hoping to avoid. But you were feeling a bit more confident now after opening up about everything else, and didn’t hesitate to answer him. </p><p>“I think your brothers are upset with me. Hurt? Angry? I don’t know. They have hardly spoken to me since then. I mean, there’s polite conversation and all, but it just feels different. Like maybe they don’t trust me as much anymore? Or maybe they’re scared of me?</p><p>I’ve never really used my pacts before now. They were just symbolic of our connection more than anything. But now...now I used it against them. I controlled them. I forced them to do something against their wills. I can’t honestly expect for them to just treat me the same after that, right? Who would want to be around someone like that, who could just force them to do whatever they wanted…”</p><p>Your voice trailed off now into a whisper, and Levi began to understand the gravity of the situation. Or at least your perception of it. He was positive his brothers would never hold what happened against you. Especially Mammon, the known masochist, who probably got a boner about the whole thing. And the way you tell the story, it sounds like all you did was stop them from tearing apart a public restaurant, something Lucifer would likely be thankful for. And surely Beel would be glad someone stopped him before anyone got hurt. No, there had to be more to this than what you were seeing. Something else was going on and causing their strange behavior. </p><p>“Levi? You aren’t scared of me, are you?” </p><p>Levi blinked and realized you were looking at him again, anxiously awaiting a response. Scared of you? Hah. Yeah he was scared of you, but for an entirely different reason than what you were imagining right now. He was scared you’d forget about him, or leave him behind some day, or just disappear and break his heart. What he wasn’t scared of was you using his pact on him. By now, he trusted you completely, and he knew you’d never use it to make him do something he’d regret. </p><p>“No, I’m not,” he replied, forcing himself to maintain eye contact so you could see just how sincere he was, despite the deep blush spreading across his cheeks. </p><p>This time he leaned forward and wrapped you up in a hug. You felt so small right now. Usually you were so confident and self assured. You were the one everyone turned to when they needed help, but now the weight of your worries seemed to be pulling you down to that same dark place Levi often found himself. </p><p>Resting his cheek on your head, as your arms slipped around his waist, he made you an offer:</p><p>“Hey, why don’t you stay here tonight?” his arms tightened around you to make sure you couldn’t turn to see his face. He didn’t want you to know how embarrassed he was at having said that, “Just so you’re not alone I mean. You can sleep in the tub. I’ll be working on these costumes some more, so you don’t need to worry about me.” </p><p>“Yeah, that’d be nice,” you chuckled, imagining how he must look right now. You could feel his arms holding you firmly in place to be sure you couldn’t check either. </p><p>He let you go, standing up and heading towards his closet to pick out some blankets for you. He didn’t want to just assume you’d be ok with using his blankets and pillows, after all. Even if you had slept over before after a long night of gaming or an anime marathon and never complained. He was sure he smelled, being the yucky otaku that he was. </p><p>When he returned, you were nowhere to be found.<em> I guess I did creep you out</em>, he thought. Right as he was about to admit defeat however, he realized that you weren’t the only thing that was missing - Azuki-tan was too. Slightly confused, Levi walked towards the center of his room where he had last seen her, and it was then he spotted you. </p><p>You were curled up in his tub, hugging Azuki-tan to your chest, while resting your head on his Ruri-chan body pillow and cocooned in his favorite blanket. He stared at you for a moment, before realizing that you were already fast asleep, clearly exhausted at this point from all the crying you had done earlier and the guilt you had been carrying. He smiled softly, feeling a warmth spread throughout his chest. You were his Henry, and he was going to make sure you would never regret choosing him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This story went a completely different direction than I had anticipated when I started writing. Mammon was supposed to show up...but by the time it got to that point it felt like he would just be stealing the spotlight from Levi and that just didn’t sit well with me. </p><p>When I read Lesson 26 when it first came out, this idea had really hit me hard. I was worried that perhaps the boys had lost their trust in MC, and it seemed like something they never got around to addressing in the story. So I wanted to work out how I thought I would feel if I had been in that position, and I was naturally drawn to the idea of Levi doing to the comforting (especially since I made him cry so much in other stories lol). </p><p>I also felt it was important for MC to have a support system, since we so often see them helping the boys and not the other way around. Even the strongest people need help, and it’s not a sign of weakness to reach out to someone you trust. (And hopefully you don’t wait until you reach your breaking point)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>